Shohei Ohtani Now Somehow Has an OPS Higher Than His ERA

I must say, it has been a rough start to the season for the Shohei Ohtani doubters like myself. He's only made two starts on the mound, but doubts about him being able to both pitch and hit at a high level have seemingly been put to rest for now.

During Wednesday's game, Ohtani hit his fifth home run of the season, which raised his OPS to a whopping 1.044 at the end of the day. His ERA on the mound currently sits at 1.04. Even through just two starts, that's insane. There are a grand total of 10 guys in Major League Baseball with a higher OPS than Ohtani, and they're names like Mike Trout, Ronald Acuña and J.D. Martinez.

I am going to stick to my take that Ohtani will not be able to keep up pitching numbers like that — let's say an ERA under 3.00 — for a full season, but I will admit that his start this year has been remarkable. Maybe it's just because we haven't really seen anything like him before. If he can prove that he can do both at a level close to what he's doing now, maybe guys like C.C. Sabathia and Justin Upton were right when they said Ohtani was the best player they'd ever seen, after all.